


The All Important 'And'

by jedi_penguin



Series: Friends, Lovers, Family (And Everything In-Between) [2]
Category: Night Court (TV)
Genre: Curtain Fic, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Series 7 AU, ep: s07ep19 - The Glasnost Menagerie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 03:38:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14865893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedi_penguin/pseuds/jedi_penguin
Summary: What if Dan’s timing had been better in “The Glasnost Menagerie”?  An AU of the second half of season seven.  Some of the dialogue in the first chapter is taken directly from that episode.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In Night Court, there is a dichotomy between the canon developed by the writers and the actors. According to canon, Dan is attracted to women who are blonde, rich, or dumb, and Roz is none of those things. And yet, the body language between the two actors playing Dan and Roz suggests some amazing chemistry. The writers finally recognized this and then promptly dismissed it in “The Glastnost Menagerie.” But what if they hadn’t?
> 
> Also, I recognize that it might seem an odd choice to do a curtain fic for a character as overtly and unapologetically sexual as Dan, but since it can always be assumed that he's having sex, I wanted to explore him more as an emotional being. Also, I don't feel equipped to handle Dan's sex life in an accurate fashion. Like Harry, I'm still trying to figure out why he keeps jumper cables in his night stand.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Roz go dancing and the night ends differently than it did in the show. Some dialogue taken directly from the episode "Glasnost Menagerie."

After three nights of dance lessons, Dan was becoming more and more accustomed to having Roz in his arms. More dangerously, it was becoming more and more difficult to let her go each time Harry called them back to court. The last time he had dipped her, the thought occurred to him that he was now at the perfect angle to know exactly how she would look if her whole body was squirming beneath his. He could clearly visualize Roz’s head laying on his purple satin sheets; the clarity of the image took his breath away.

It wasn’t quite true that Dan had never thought about having sex with Roz; Dan Fielding thought about sex with **every** woman he met. (He had even tried grabbing and kissing her once, after a court stenographer had left him blue balled. Roz had, predictably, kicked his ass. They’d agreed to call it even.) But his physical thoughts about Roz had always been fleeting. They had to be. Meeting sexual partners was ridiculously easy for him; making friends was absurdly difficult. His friendship with Roz was important to him and he had never wanted to risk it.

Make that, he had never **before** wanted to risk their friendship. These dance lessons had rather killed that particular obstacle. At this point, the only thing preventing him from turning his head during their current tango and kissing Roz within an inch of her life was the knowledge that she was proficient in six martial arts and had won the bailiff’s marksmanship contest four years in a row. His ever increasing desire for Roz hadn’t eroded his sense of self-preservation. Not yet, anyway.

As their current tango ended, Dan was euphoric. “Olé!” He clapped his hands and Roz gave him one of her rare smiles. He literally bounced around her in happiness. “That was great! That was great! Oh, I was sliding! I was gliding! I was Ricardo Montalban!” 

“You weren’t bad,” Roz agreed. “But you need to do a quicker recovery when you dip.”

“Yeah, I know.” He started miming a dipping move. “When I dip a woman, I want to stay down there.”

Dan worried that Roz might object to being included with women that he wanted to stay down with, but her voice was mild as she suggested, “In that case, skip the dip.”

He laughed happily. “Oh, this is great. I’m going to impress the **hell** out of **all** of those guys! I’m gonna be in suck up heaven. And I owe it all to you, my beautiful, fleet-footed cha-cha mama.”

Roz only response to being called beautiful was to return to her usual stone faced expression. “You also owe me another thirty bucks.”

“Oh, right.” Dan didn’t hesitate, immediately pulling out his wallet and laying the requested cash in her outstretched hand. “God, you are so **good** at this! You must go dancing all the time.”

“Oh, sure,” Roz sneered. “You’d be amazed at how many guys in the drunk tank just love to rhumba.” 

Roz’s face fell and Dan’s happiness fell away with it. She turned away from him, and Dan realized that there was nothing on earth he wanted as badly as he wanted to see her smile at him. He was uncharacteristically awkward as he struggled for the right words. “Um…. Roz, you know what I was just thinking I need?” 

She turned back towards him, though her expression was suspicious. “A vasectemony and a pound of salt peter?”

Dan put on an offended look, but inwardly, he was soaring. This was familiar ground, and he suddenly knew what to say again. “No! What I **need** is to practice first. Out in front of… people. You know? Like at a… ballroom… somewhere…?”

She glared at him. “You’d better not be feeling sorry for me.”

“No, no!” He raised his right hand. “I swear. My motives are entirely self-centered and greedy.” He had never been more honest in his life; he desperately wanted a reason to hold Roz in his arms for a while longer. It really was more about him than about her.

Her expression still giving nothing away, Roz said, “You pay the cover.”

He grinned broadly. “Okay. Sure!”

“In that case, I know a great club where they’ve got good music, colored lights, and a mirrored ball on the ceiling.” 

Dan proffered his elbow which Roz graciously took. “Oh. They put in a hot oil pit, and it sounds just like my place.” Roz gave him a disgusted look which made him smile. He began tangoing them towards the door; by the time they reached it, she was smiling too. 

He had been correct earlier. Having her smile at him **was** everything he wanted in life at this particular moment.

~*~*~

The evening session dragged. There was the usual parade of drunks, hookers, and brawlers, but none of them were odd enough to engage Harry’s sense of whimsy, nor pathetic enough to trigger Christine’s annoying savior complex. They were simply the dregs of New York, in all their unexceptional, repetitive glory. It was nights like this that sent him to the dingiest neighborhoods, looking for the closest thing to love that money could buy.

But not tonight! Tonight, he was going dancing with Roz after work, and that was keeping him sane. Despite the boredom, he found himself smiling.

Finally, **finally** , Harry banged his gavel for the last time. “That’s a wrap, people! Go forth and have good weekends! Oh, but Dan, not **too** good of a weekend.” Dan smirked at him but said nothing.

Bull bounded over. “Hey, guys! Who wants to go with me to Muldoon’s for a beer?”

Christine sighed. “I’m sorry, Bull, but I’m beat. I was barely keeping my eyes open during those last five or six cases. I gotta get some sleep!”

“I’m sorry, too,” Harry said regretfully. “I need to go over to Yakov’s; there are some things I’ve gotta say to him. How about Monday after work?”

“Monday works better for me too,” Roz said quickly.

Bull turned doubtfully towards him. “Dan? How about it?”

“No can do, big guy. I’ve got plans tonight, with someone **much** prettier than you.” He turned towards Roz, expecting her to say something along the lines of _”That doesn’t narrow it down much,”_ but she looked too embarrassed to say anything at all. In fact, Dan suspected that there might be a blush hiding beneath her dark skin. Well, that was interesting. Feeling expansive, Dan added, “But count me in for Monday night.”

“All righty!” And with that bright pronouncement, the gang promptly dispersed. Dan loved them all, but he was very ready to get away from his adopted family for a while.

Well, most of them, anyways. He jogged down the hallway until he was close enough to be heard without yelling. “Hey! Roz! Wait up!” She paused until he caught up with her then started walking again. “Can I give you a ride to the club?”

“I brought my car tonight.” She stopped and looked at him. “Do you mind leaving your car here and I’ll drive? It’s a little difficult to find and there isn’t a ton of parking there anyways. I can drive you home or back for your car afterwards, whichever you prefer.”

He smiled uncertainly. “Yeah. Sure. Whatever works for you.”

She nodded and started off again without a word. He grinned and ran to catch up again.

~*~*~

Dan had found it intoxicating to dance with Roz with Harry’s office, but honestly, it couldn’t hold a candle to being out in public with her. The two of them were clearly the most skilled and most attractive couple on the dance floor. And Roz looked **fantastic** under colored lights.

He was incredibly turned on and getting more so by the moment, but Dan never forgot that this wasn’t a date. Not because it was his one of his best friends in his arms, but because he was having **fun**. Dan enjoyed the company of women, but he never had **fun** while he was out on dates, so whatever this was, it was in a category all by itself. He rather liked it, so much so that he was still able to tune out how badly he craved his dance companion. He was becoming more and more certain that he wanted to end the evening in Roz’s bed, but he would trade that outcome in a heartbeat if could somehow prevent the evening from ending at all.

But perhaps…. If he extended the night to last the entire weekend…

Before he could chicken out, Dan leaned down to Roz’s ear. “Hey. Roz. Got anything in your wardrobe that isn’t bailiff-colored? Say, like a dress? Red, maybe? Or gold?”

She looked up in surprise. “Maybe. Why?”

“I was thinking that a dance partner like you could really make me look good at the Lieutenant Governor’s Ball. What about it? Wanna go with me and hobnob with the rich and powerful?”

Roz narrowed her eyes at him, clearly suspecting his motives. “I thought the purpose of tomorrow night was to give you a chance to suck up to people. Wouldn’t it cramp your style to have me there?”

He shrugged. “I can squeeze you in for a dance or two. And you can scarf up free hors d’ouvres while I’m ignoring you. C’mon! How often are you asked to be arm candy at swanky balls?”

“Never. I never get asked that.” Suspicion darkened her eyes a deeper shade of brown. “You’re up to something. What is it?”

Everything in Dan was screaming at him to giggle nervously and say, _”Nothing, nothing,”_ , to let this moment pass, but something else was telling him that it was now or never. If he let this go, he’d never get it back. He didn’t know what _this_ was, but he knew he wanted it, whatever it was. So he lowered his voice as deep as it could go and went for broke. “You got me. I do have an ulterior motive. This is great,” he waved his hand around the dance floor, “but you’re only here tonight to help out a friend. If you go with me to the Ball, you’ll be my date, and the night has a better chance of ending like this.” At that, Dan leaned down to kiss Roz. Gently and lightly, partly because she was his friend and he didn’t want her to feel trapped, but mostly because he didn’t have the money for major dental work if he had misjudged the situation. If she wanted to be **really** kissed, she needed to be the one to deepen it.

She didn’t. Roz allowed him to brush his lips against hers, but she didn’t kiss him back. On the other hand, she hadn’t punched his lights out either, so Dan figured that he was still in the game. When he pulled back, Roz stared at him with the implacable expression that she wore so well. “What are you doing, Dan?”

Once again, Dan fought against his instincts. All his experiences with other women were telling him to come up with some quick and agile lie, but he knew Roz, and she knew him. She’d see through a lie, and this thing, whatever it was, would be over. Dan believed in trying everything once, so perhaps this was the time to just stick with the truth. “Look around you, Roz. We are the hottest item on this dance floor. By far. Don’t you want to know how hot we’d be on **your** floor?”

And this time, he **knew** that she was blushing. He was close enough to feel the heat coming off her face. As always, she kept the fluster out of her expression and voice. “I’ve thought about it myself, and not just tonight.” Dan grinned at her, and her stoic expression faltered slightly. “But, I decided it would be a mistake.”

Normally he might have had a snotty reaction to that, but he sensed that he was **close** , incredibly close, and now wasn’t the time to blow it. So he lowered his voice again. “Why? Because we work together?”

“No.” Her voice was flat and she wasn’t giving anything away. “Because I’m more than you can handle.”

She may have thought that she was joking, but she was also correct. One hundred percent correct, but this wasn’t the time to admit that. Or, with his new honesty policy, perhaps it was. “Of course you are. But Roz, you’ve gotta know that is the only way I ever want to go.” Finally, finally she smiled at him, and he gave her a goofy grin in return. “I’m a lawyer. I can draw up and sign a waiver for you before we get naked, if that’ll relieve your mind at all. You’ll be completely indemnified.”

“I might just take you up on that.” If she wasn’t objecting to the idea of getting naked with him, Dan figured he probably had permission to kiss her again. He bent down to do so, and this time she responded with all the heat he could have hoped for. In fact, she was a bit breathless when she spoke afterwards. “You go get our coats; I’ll get my car and meet you in front.”

Unable to contain his glee, Dan glided towards the coat check stand and boogied by himself while he waited for the attendant to return. He continued dancing outside the club and all the way to the passenger side of Roz’s beat up old Buick. As he slid in, she gave him a blistering look. “You’d better be as good as rumor claims you are.”

The smile he gave her was blinding. “Baby, I’m better!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after

Roz stretched and smiled. Last night had been amazing. She would never, **ever** tell Dan, because his ego was out of control already, but that had been the best sex of her entire life. Nobody else even came close. It turned out his endless parade of women weren’t all as dumb as she’d thought.

She rolled on her side and opened her eyes. Huh. Maybe all of Dan’s bimbos had a point, but so did all his detractors. The other side of the bed was empty. The only indications that she hadn’t spent the night alone were her satiated body and a slight indentation in her extra pillow. He had left without saying good-bye, and it had to be the most predictable thing in the world. The only dumb one in this equation was her.

She couldn’t even be mad. Dan was what he was, and she’d known that for years. Expecting him to change just because it was her was stupid and unfair. Mentally shrugging, she got up to take a shower. Once she was standing, she caught the faint aroma of… was that eggs?

Instead of heading towards the bathroom, Roz put on her bathrobe and went out to investigate. As soon as she opened the door, she could hear Dan quietly singing. It got louder as she moved towards the kitchen.

_”—me, she loves me, she gets down on her knees and hugs me! Oh, she loves me like a **ROCK**! She loves me like the rock of ages, oh loves me. She loves me, loves me, loves me.”_

Since no one could see her, Roz allowed herself a broad smile. There was something endearing about watching Dan dance around her kitchen with a spatula. Every three seconds or so, he returned to check on the eggs he was cooking before returning to his dancing.

Eventually he spun around and noticed her. He smiled broadly, turned off the stove, and slid into her personal space. “Good morning,” he said in a low tone, and then bent down to kiss her. 

Roz would have wagered money that she was sexed out for the next month at least, but Dan’s kiss left her weak in the knees, and it began to occur to her that she might be in trouble. Still, she kept her tone even as she said, “Morning.” She waved her hand towards the stove. “What’s all this?”

He smiled. “I thought we could have breakfast together before I left.” The smile suddenly left his face and he looked uncertain of himself, and much younger than she knew him to be. “I mean, if that’s alright. If you want me out of here now, I could—“

“Nah, you can stay.” His confident grin suddenly reappeared, as if it had never been gone. “I’ll get the plates.”

“No need.” Dan went to the oven and pulled out two plates stacked with pancakes. He split the eggs between the plates and set them down. He then pulled out a chair for Roz in an excessively gallant fashion and sat down across from her. “Your kitchen is pretty logical. I had no problem finding everything.”

“So, you do this a lot?” Roz pointed to her breakfast, so he’d know that was what she meant.

He looked oddly embarrassed. “Everyone in the Bayou learns to cook, both boys and girls, but I don’t do as much as I should. I hate cooking for just me and I’ve never wanted to cook in anyone else’s kitchen before. But sometimes I cook for other people at my place.”

Roz smiled, strangely gratified to know that in this one thing, if nothing else, he wasn’t going to treat her like every other woman he slept with. If this all turned out to be a one-off, it would be okay. “Well, thank you for breakfast. To tell the truth, I didn’t expect you to be here when I woke up.”

“Ah, but there’s a careful method to when I leave a woman’s house. No matter how sordid the night before was, it always seems more wholesome in the light of day. So, the less I want to see her again, the earlier I leave. The more I hope to see her again, the later I leave.”

“And since you **have** to see me again on Monday whether you want to or not, you’re planning on staying here until noon,” she said sourly.

He looked surprised. “You don’t count in that, because you’ve already seen me at my worst; I’m not going to look any better to you in daylight no matter what I do.”

She nodded. “True.”

“But more than that, we both have things to do today! I have errands to run and you need to spend time doing whatever it is that women do to look beautiful.” She scowled at him, but there was no heat in it and Dan didn’t seem to be fazed by it at all. “I need you looking your best if you’re to help me at the Lieutenant Governor’s Ball. Now, it starts at seven and—“

“Is that still on?” Dan looked confused, so Roz elaborated. “I thought you just invited me to talk me into sex. Since you’ve got that already, do you still want me to go with you?”

“If you want to. If you’ve changed your mind though—“

“No, no! I want to go. I just wasn’t sure if I was still invited.”

He looked troubled, but continued on as if she hadn’t interrupted. “The ball starts at seven o’clock, and I want to be there on the dot to maximize my suck-up time. It’s a 2 1/2 hour drive to Albany—“

“Albany!” Roz considered, then nodded. “Okay, I guess that does make sense.”

“So, it’s over two hours to Albany, but we won’t need to stop for dinner because there should be plenty of food at the ball. If I pick you up at four, we can be on the road by 4:30.” He suddenly looked unsure of himself again. “Now, about the return. The ball ends around eleven, so we won’t get back here until 1:30 in the morning. **Or** , we could spend the night half way between Albany and Manhattan in a great bed and breakfast I know in Poughkeepsie. And maybe we could spend tomorrow driving around the Hudson Valley, looking at the scenery?”

B&Bs and scenic drives weren’t Roz’s style any more than they were Dan’s, but he was clearly trying, and she was touched. She was also grateful to be able to truthfully say, “Can’t do it.” He tilted his head, silently asking why. “I sing in the choir at my church. I need to be there by 10:30 tomorrow morning.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “You’re giving up a weekend getaway for **church**?”

“After last night, I need me some Jesus. After a full weekend with you, I might need an exorcist.” He tilted his head in silent agreement, but was clearly disappointed. “But I might have another idea. You said the earlier you leave, the worse the night before seems, right?”

“Yeah…”

“So does it work in reverse? If the night actually is disgusting, is it easier to be out the door in the morning?”

“What are you thinking?”

“If you’re half the slime ball the secretarial staff all claim you are, then you’ve gotta know a sleazy place between here and Albany where we could spend the night but still to be motivated to get an early start. If you can get me back to my apartment by 9:30 tomorrow, that should give me time to get ready and off to church before choir practice.”

Dan clapped his hands in glee. “Babe, I’m **twice** the slime people say I am! I know of a place so sleazy that you’ll be taking three showers a day for a week.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Ha ha! It’s a plan, then. And you **do** have a dress, right?”

She shrugged. “If not, I can buy one. I recently made ninety bucks giving dance lessons, so I can afford it at the moment.”

He grinned at her. “Any color but blue.”

“Hey! No man tells me how to dress, Fielding!”

He should have cowered in fear, but instead, his grin broadened. “I’m taking a stunning samba queen to the ball; bailiffs in their blue dresses can stay home.” He stood up with his now empty plate and carried it to the kitchen. When he returned, he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, grabbed his jacket and tie from the sofa, and headed for the door. “See ya at four. Ta ta!” he sang out happily, and he was gone.

Roz looked around the now empty apartment, vision settling on her messy kitchen. “Well, that happened,” she said to no one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Off to the Ball!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: The video is grainy, but this is the dress I’m picturing for Roz: https://youtu.be/JJ1iVpR67Mk

Dan only engaged in self-reflection whenever he hit rock bottom. He would look at himself, realize his problems were entirely of his own making, and then do the exact same shit over again as soon as he dug himself out of whatever hole he happened to be in. This was kind of his thing. Actually thinking through and considering his actions before the walls starting closing in on him was a foreign concept to him, and yet, from the moment he left Roz’s apartment that morning, he couldn’t stop asking himself what the hell he was doing.

He understood what had happened and was fine with most of it. He’d gotten horny as hell dancing with Roz, so he’d slept with her. That made sense to him. He’d stuck around afterwards because Roz would have kicked his ass on Monday if he hadn’t. It wasn’t courtesy, but rather simple self-preservation. The breakfast thing was a bit harder to explain, but it all came down to the fact that he enjoyed cooking when he was happy and also that he hadn’t felt like eating by himself when he had the opportunity to eat with a friend. Since he didn’t want to examine **why** he was so happy that morning, he chose to stick with the _wanted company for a meal_ and _cooking at her place saved him from paying for his own breakfast_ rationales. And doing that, it all held together perfectly… until he insisted she come with him to the ball tonight even after she gave him an out. Until he suggested a Yuppie wet dream of a weekend in the Hudson Valley. What the fuck was wrong with him? That was the sort of boring crap he pulled out when some society babe was playing hard to get; he had volunteered to put himself through that hell for a woman who had already slept with him.

Maybe he was coming down with the flu for something.

Except he knew that he wasn’t. He just really, **really** wanted to have more sex with Roz. Like, a lot more sex. She wasn’t his physical “type,” and he wasn’t hers, and yet the chemistry between them had been amazing and not something he wanted to let go of right away. At the same time, he also wanted to keep the friendship he had with her. That was a thing people did sometimes, wasn’t it? Be friends **and** lovers?

He worried over this puzzle all morning as he ran various errands. It was while he was getting his hair cut that he finally figured out why he wasn’t willing to let this thing with Roz go. Coincidentally, it also explained why he had been so giddy that morning: for the first time in his life, he had slept with someone who loved him.

Oh, he knew quite well that Roz wasn’t **in** love with him, but she did love him in some fashion, and that was enough to make last night a unique experience for him. He closed his eyes and focused on his memory of her saying, _”You’re a good friend and I love you.”_ That memory merged with those from the night before, of Roz moaning and squirming in pleasure, and he wondered how it would feel if those visions were ever to coincide in reality. 

If he was honest with himself (which he rarely was), he had to admit that it was also nice to actually **care** about the person he was sleeping with. While it wasn’t unprecedented for him to have sex with a woman that was important to him, it was definitely rare. He still met up with Rebecca two or three times a year, but she would never be more than a friend with occasional benefits. Even if she weren’t old enough to be his mother, she was still desperately in love with her dead husband; he barely rated with her. The last woman that he’d had sex with that he could possibly imagine falling in love with was Joan Hobson, and he’d only known her for a single day before she moved to Albany and broke his heart. He’d known Roz for three and a half years and over that period she had become an important part of the family that he’d chosen for himself. As much as he hated this self-examination bullshit, he didn’t have to look too deeply into himself to see that he even loved Roz, in the same way that she loved him. As a friend, not as a lover, but also definitely **not** like a sister. Until this week, it had never been complicated.

On the other hand, love wasn’t the same thing as **in** love, so what in the hell was he doing planning a weekend with her? He had too few friends to risk losing any of them, but he especially couldn’t lose Roz. She understood him and accepted him more than the others did. She was the first to mock him, but also the first to help him when he needed a friend. She didn’t probe the way Harry did, and she didn’t judge like Mac and Christine; she just accepted him as he was. (Bull did as well, but then again, Bull tended to irritate him. Roz never did.). They could probably write off last night as one of those things that they’d eventually joke about, but he didn’t see how how they could spend two nights in bed and then go back to their usual banter on Monday. And he wasn’t certain he could live without it.

Dan knew what he needed to do: he should stand Roz up. He’d still make the hotel reservations and pack his car, but he’d plan on picking up some stranger at the ball. If Roz bought a new dress for tonight, he’d reimburse her on Monday as part of his groveling for forgiveness. There would be consequences for standing her up—for instance, she might very well break his nose the next time she saw him—but she didn’t hold grudges after she meted out punishments. Once she saw him with a splint on his nose, he was certain that she’d move them back to their previous relationship. Their boring, old, comfortable, sex-free relationship. It was for the best. 

~*~*~

Having come to such a firm decision, Dan wasn’t at all surprised when his car steered itself over to Roz’s, almost as if by magic. He was nothing if not weak.

~*~*~

Roz had just about decided to call Dan and bail on him. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing with him, but she was certain that it would never lead anywhere good. She often engaged in conversations with God over her tendency to fall for guys that were bad for her, but she didn’t need a sign from Above to tell her that Dan Fielding was on his own separate level of terribleness. She’d be better off dating the next serial killer that came through lock up.

Except… she’d promised to go and it simply wasn’t in her to let down a friend. Part of the reason Roz made so few friends was because she took the responsibility seriously and she wanted to limit the number of people she had to work that hard for. If she said she’d go, she needed to go. Besides, she felt like Dan’s invitation had come with an unspoken dare and she **never** backed down from a dare.

She was ready a good half hour before Dan was supposed to pick her up, but she was afraid that she might actually make that cancellation call if she stayed in her apartment for much longer, so she went down to the bar that lay underneath her apartment. She ordered a glass of pineapple juice and drank it beside the window. As she stared out, it occurred to her that she might not be the only one to have toyed with the idea of backing out of their date. Actually, now that she thought about it, it was probably even odds that he would never show. If he didn’t, well, she’d take it as a sign from God that this thing with Dan was a bad idea; if he did show, well, she **still** knew it was a bad idea, but she’d go anyway.

She caught a glimpse of his car around 3:45, fifteen minutes early. Roz figured she could save him the cost of parking if she could catch his eye, so she ran outside as quickly as she could in her new heels. Luckily he saw her and double parked in front of the bar. She opened the door, threw her bag in the back seat, and slid in. 

She wondered if he would lean over for a kiss and found herself rather hoping that he wouldn’t. It had felt right last night when they were dancing, and righter still once they got to her place and started fumbling towards her bedroom, but she wasn’t ready for a casual kiss in the daylight. It would just feel… weird.

Perhaps he felt the same way, because he leaned away from her, on to his door. “You look fantastic, Roz.”

She almost smiled. “You don’t look so bad yourself, Fielding.” It was an understatement; Dan filled out his tuxedo very well.

He grinned. “I predict that we’ll be the best looking people there. So, are you ready to say nice things about me in order to boost my career?”

“No, but I’m ready to make you look good on the dance floor.”

“Close enough!”

~*~*~

To Dan’s surprise, conversation flowed easily during the long car ride up to Albany, without the smallest hint of awkwardness. They started naturally enough with gossip about their co-workers. Since Dan had worked with Harry for four years before Roz came to their court, and with Bull for a couple of years before that, he had a lot of stories that she hadn’t heard yet. Once those started to dry up, she began telling Dan about the weird things that happen in lock up, starting with defendants that he might remember but then going on to people that she encountered earlier in her career when she still lived in Chicago. From there, they started to get more personal. Roz talked about what it was like growing up on the south side of Chicago and Dan skirted questions about his childhood but talked at length about college and law school. 

The car ride and easy conversation were… nice. In fact, the entire afternoon was comfortable and oddly fun. The easy camaraderie was so different from Dan’s usual interactions with women that he began to wonder whether he had dreamed the previous night. He periodically adjusted the rear view mirror to give him a view of his back seat; he needed to **see** the duffle bag sitting back there to assure himself that Roz had promised to sleep with him later that night, to remind himself that he wasn’t simply spending the day with a good friend. The odd melding of friendship with the promise of sex was unnerving, but Dan decided he liked it. He liked it a lot, actually.

They had left Manhattan earlier than he’d intended, so they arrived at the hotel well before the ball was scheduled to start. He placed his hand on her lower back and ushered her into the bar. There were a few other couples in evening wear who were almost certainly there for the same reason that they were. Dan knew that he **should** be introducing himself since there was a very good chance that at least one person here was worth sucking up to, but he wasn’t ready to divert his attention away from Roz just yet. There would be plenty of time to suck up to people once the ballroom doors opened; there was no harm in delaying the working part of his evening.

Sooner than he liked, the other men in tuxedoes and women in evening gowns began leaving the bar. Roz stood up. “I guess it’s time for you to be witty and charming… or as close as you’re able to get.” 

He glared at her, but there was no heat in it. He left money on the table for their tab and offered her his elbow. “C’mon, babe! Time to make me look good!”

“That’s a helluva tall order, Dan.”

“Ha ha.”

She smirked. “How about asking me to leap some tall buildings? That might be more doable.”

“You wanna wait in the car?”

“Nah. I’m good.”

He carefully looked her over, slowly and lecherously going from hair to feet and then back up again. “Yeah. Yeah, you are.” She looked embarrassed and he grinned. “Let’s knock ‘em dead.”

~*~*~

When it came to sucking up, Dan believed in being as methodical as possible. Having Roz with him added a level of complexity, but he made it work for him. He kept her close as he circled the room introducing himself to people. Most of the people he met weren’t necessarily in positions that might help him, so he used her presence to get out of unproductive conversations. _”Can I get you something to drink, Roz?”_ or _”I think they’re playing our song. Shall we dance?”_ When he did find someone worth cultivating, he used her to peel away competition. _”Say, Mr. Lowly, I wanted to ask the Senator here a question about her latest proposed bill, but my friend isn’t terribly interested in politics. Would you mind dancing this next song with her?”_

Roz eventually tired of being handed off to strangers and went to sit at a table with a plate full of expensive hors d'oeuvres. At that point, Dan began keeping an eye on his watch so that she wasn’t left along for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time. He also started positioning himself so that he would be able to keep an eye on her while talking to people so that he could go over earlier if it looked like she was starting to get fidgety or bored. He wasn’t particularly enjoying the stress of balancing his groveling with Roz’s happiness, but he figured the dividends would be worth it, both for his career in the long run and for his sex life later that evening.

As Dan was being introduced to the Governor’s Chief of Staff, a young man sat down by Roz and began talking to her. Dan relaxed, knowing she was set for a while, and concentrated on ingratiating himself with Jim Davenport, one of the most powerful men in the state. 

“Dan Fielding. Dan Fielding…. I know that name from somewhere…”

Dan put his hands in his pockets to keep himself from clapping in glee. He was getting noticed in Albany! “I have the highest conviction rate of any district attorney in the Big Apple. Also the lowest percentage of overturned cases. Perhaps you saw that somewhere?”

“No… I don’t get local data like that. But that sounds impressive; good for you.”

Feeling a bit deflated, Dan tried again. “I barely lost to Joan Hobson for state assemblyman. Could that be it?”

“Oh, that was you? Close race, as I recall.” Davenport scowled. “Damnit. This is going to bother me. Where do I know…” He suddenly snapped his fingers. “Got it! You’re the guy that got Teddy disbarred!”

“Teddy?” Dan’s heart sank. “You’re a friend of Theodore Woods,” he said flatly.

“Going on forty years now.” Seeing Dan’s look of disbelief, Davenport smiled. “Yes, I know I don’t look that old, and as a matter of fact, I’m not. Teddy was our neighbor when I was a kid. I decided that I wanted to be a lawyer while I was still in high school, so I went to him for advice about which colleges I should apply to, which majors were most likely to get me accepted into a law school, which classes I should take… Oh, I asked Teddy all kinds of things and he always made time for me. The best mentor anybody could ever ask for, and also a good friend. Years later, he even introduced me to my wife.”

Dan had no idea how to respond to that. That whole business with Theodore Woods had been one of the low points of his life. He had been offered a dream job in a prestigious firm only to discover that the offer was a hidden bribe to go easy on the senior partner’s son. When he brought the matter to the judicial review board, Woods had lied and damn near gotten Dan disbarred himself. He always got screwed whenever he did the right thing, and in this case, his suffering clearly wasn’t over. His best contact of the evening was a bust, and all because Harry had talked him into protecting the integrity of the law. He needed to stop listening to that geek.

The silence stretched out uncomfortably, so Dan took a deep breath and forced himself to speak. “I don’t know what Mr. Woods told you about what happened, but I assure you, I had no choice. It wasn’t personal; I did what was required of me as an officer of the court.”

“Teddy told me that disbarment was the best thing to ever happen to him.” Dan gaped. “That firm chipped away at his soul and his self-respect for decades. What happened with you finally made him realize that. I think he’s grateful to you and I know I’m grateful to have my old friend back again.” Davenport clapped Dan on the shoulder. “I think I like you, Mr. Fielding.”

“Please, call me Dan.”

“All right. I know three things about you, Dan. The way you handled yourself with Teddy tells me that you’re honest. If what you say about your conviction rate pans out—“

“Oh, it does.”

“I’ll check it anyway. If true, you’re clearly highly competent. And the fact that you’ve run for political office proves that you’re ambitious. I always feel lucky when I can find somebody with two of those traits; it’s rare to meet somebody with all three. I have an idea where I could use you in our administration, probably in six months or so, though I can’t be definite about the date. Would you have any interest in that at all?”

“Oh yes!” Dan squeaked out. He coughed and deliberately lowered his voice in an attempt to play it cool. “What I mean is, I’d need to know the specifics so that I could compare the position with my other options, but if this hypothetical job is the right fit, I might be very interested.”

“I’m sorry but I can’t give you specifics right now since there’s somebody currently in the job I’m thinking of for you. He’s making noises like he wants to resign though, and I think he will at some point. But I don’t want to push him out by offering his position to anyone else.” Davenport reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. “If you have a business card, I’ll call you when I have something definite to tell you. And here’s mine. Feel free to call me if you haven’t heard from me before the summer.”

Dan accepted a business card from one of the most powerful men in the state of New York and eagerly handed over one of his own. “Thank you, sir. I’ll be in touch.”

“Excellent.”

Dan grinned then scanned the room for Roz. He couldn’t wait to tell her how well he’d done tonight. He found her dancing with the guy that she’d been talking to earlier and couldn’t contain the scowl that broke out on his face. He wasn’t jealous, or not **quite** jealous, but something about the way that yo-yo was holding Roz rubbed Dan the wrong way. 

Davenport followed Dan’s glower. “That’s your date, isn’t it? The African-American woman in the black and silver dress?” Dan nodded. “A word to the wise: be careful of that fella she’s dancing with. Green is a real ladykiller. You might want to go rescue your girlfriend.”

Dan knew that he should have corrected the other man’s assumption. Roz wasn’t his girlfriend and would probably be insulted to have been identified as such. For some reason, however, he was reluctant to negate the possibility of such a relationship. Instead, he simply shook Davenport’s hand and said, “Thanks. Both for considering me for a job and for the tip about, Green is it?”

“You’re quite welcome, Dan. I look forward to talking to you again over the coming months.”

~*~*

To her surprise, Roz was having a great time. True, Dan was mostly ignoring her, but she had been prepared for that. The food was amazing and the people watching was even better, but mostly, she was enjoying the feeling of being part of the rich and powerful. She had no particular desire to live like the other half, but it was fun to pretend for a few hours.

Dan found her a succession of dance partners, none of them him. She wasn’t certain if this was for his benefit or for hers, but since she enjoyed dancing, it ultimately didn’t matter… until her last dance partner trod on her foot a half dozen times during a waltz. After that, she retreated to a table in the corner and passively watched the room. Dan came to check on her several times, and he did ask her to dance a couple of times while doing so, but he seemed distracted and eager to get back to his sucking up. So much for creating a mambo king.

After a half hour or so of people watching, an incredibly gorgeous man came over to her table. He looked like a younger and more muscular Arsenio Hall, pretty much her physical ideal. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Roz shrugged. “It’s a free country.”

“My name’s Roderick Green.”

“Roz Russel.”

“I’ve been watching you, Roz, and it looks like you’re here by yourself. How can that possibly be? A fine looking sister such as yourself?”

Roz ignored the compliment. “Actually, I’m here with a friend. He’s off networking.”

“Sounds like a chump to me. If you were here with me, you wouldn’t write me off as a ‘friend’ and you certainly wouldn’t be sitting here alone. A lady like you needs attention, and I’d be the brother to give it to you.” Roz shrugged and Roderick grinned. “Too cheesy?”

“Not if you're making pizza.”

“Ouch! Put me in my place, Mama! I like it.”

Roz smiled. “I don’t think talking is your strong suit. Care to dance?”

“Maybe in a little bit.” He smiled mischievously. “That sounded like a challenge and now I’ve **gotta** impress you. I won’t sleep tonight if I don’t.”

“And if you do impress me?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “Then neither of us will sleep.” 

Roz fought down a sigh. Roderick wasn’t Arsenio Hall; he was a younger and less subtle Dan Fielding. Still, that meant she knew how to handle him. “So, Roderick. What do you do?”

“I’m a policy aide for the governor and his main go-to guy for anti-crime legislation.” He smirked, clearly assuming that Roz would be dazzled by this. “And you?”

“I’m the gal who sees what happens when crime isn’t prevented.”

He looked surprised. “You’re a cop?”

“A bailiff. In Manhattan.”

“Wow, I bet you have a lot of fascinating stories.”

Roz pretended that she hadn’t been condescended to and answered truthfully. “A few.”

“Any you care to share?” Roz stared silently at him until he grew uncomfortable. “Or would that be unprofessional?”

“Kind of.”

Roderick looked stymied, which was pretty much what Roz had been shooting for. It turned out that he wasn’t Dan Fielding after all; Dan was much more persistent. She continued looking blandly at him until he asked in evident desperation, “So! What about that dance? Still up for it?”

“Sure. Think you can stay off my toes? My last partner couldn’t and they’re still a bit sore.”

“Hey, this brother has rhythm! Your toes are safe with me.” Roz laughed, which caused Roderick to beam happily. He took her hand and led her to the floor as a slow foxtrot started up. 

After the foxtrot, they danced a waltz and then started a tango. Roderick was an excellent dancer, in addition to being funny, self-confident, and gorgeous. He was pretty much everything she looked for in a man, which is why it baffled her that she didn’t feel the same physical attraction to him as she had felt towards Dan the night before. She was enjoying herself immensely, but that was as far as it went. Maybe she’d been correct that morning after all; maybe she **was** sexed out for the foreseeable future.

That theory was soon disproved by a familiar baritone. “Mind if I cut in?” Just the sound of Dan’s voice had her heart fluttering violently. She looked over Roderick’s shoulder to see her friend with a bland expression on his face but a slightly dangerous look in his eyes.

Not knowing Dan as well as she did, or at all, Roderick decided to play with fire. He turned around, got a glimpse of Dans white hair, then pointedly turned his back on the other man. “Get lost, grandpa.”

“Grandpa?” Roz expected Dan to explode at that, but instead he forced out a laugh. “I’m only eight years older than Roz. Does that mean she’s being paid to babysit you? Why don’t you run along home, sonny? The tango is a dance for grown ups.”

Roderick spun around in a fury. For a moment, it looked like he was going to punch Dan, but then Roderick laughed ruefully instead. “He’s your date, isn’t he?”

“That’s me.”

Roz smiled. “Thanks for keeping me company, Roderick. It was nice to meet you.”

“So long, Green.”

Roderick bowed slightly. “It was nice meeting you, Roz. Look me up if you’re ever in Albany again.” He turned to Dan. “I can’t imagine why a woman like her wants to spend time with a jerk like you. Maybe you have hidden depths?” And with that parting shot, he left.

Dan had already forgotten the other man. He spun Roz into his arms and proceeded to lead her through the tango. Their movements were as hot and sultry as the music, and by the time the dance was over, she found herself wanting him even more than she had the night before.

He evidently felt the same. “Let’s get out of here,” he growled.

Everything in Roz was screaming in agreement, but if Dan ever figured out how much he affected her, she’d be lost. So she protested. “It’s barely past nine. I thought you wanted to suck up for the entire four hours.”

He grinned. “As it turns out, I don’t have to. I’m not going to meet anybody better than the last guy I talked to unless the governor himself shows up, which he won’t, because it would be rude for him to show up his lieutenant governor at his own ball.” The music started up again, a cha-cha this time. “Let’s do one more vertical dance then spend the rest of the night moving horizontally.”

Although the only point of contact during the cha-cha was their hands, Roz found their second dance even more arousing than the first. Their hips were completely in sync as they twisted and gyrated, an explicit promise of how well their bodies might complement each other. By the time the music ended, she no longer cared about playing it cool. “Okay, Fielding. Take me somewhere less public. Now.”

The smile he gave her reminded Roz that Dan wasn’t at all safe, no matter how well she knew him. At the moment, she didn’t care. He draped an arm over her shoulder and guided her towards the coat check. After collecting their coats and placing them over his free arm, he gently nudged her towards the door. As soon as they were out of the ballroom, however, he stopped being gentle. He pushed her against the wall and kissed her, long and deep and hard, until she could barely breathe.

When she got her breath back, Roz said, “Screw your hotel reservations. Instead of getting in the car, let’s check in to a room here. I’ll tell my choir director that I was too sick to go to church.”

“Not a chance, babe. You challenged me to find the sleaziest hotel in the state of New York, and that’s where we’re staying.”

Roz laughed. Not at Dan, but at the fact that he was the second man that evening to claim that she was a challenge. Perhaps Dan was just a less attractive but far sexier Roderick Green. She was okay with that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the weekend didn't go EXACTLY to plan...

Unlike the journey up to Albany, they didn’t talk on the drive to the hotel. Dan blasted the radio so there wouldn’t be an uncomfortable silence, and they both sang along to favorite songs, but they didn’t talk. 

Though with the unspoken conversation being conveyed by Dan’s hand on her knee, perhaps they didn’t need to talk.

After a little under an hour, Dan pulled up to a one story building that she never would have taken for a hotel. There was no neon sign marking it as such, and Roz wasn’t certain that they had even passed a sign identifying the town they were in. “What is this place?”

“The least savory place in the state,” Dan said proudly. “Perhaps in the world!”

“Remind me to avoid daring you in the future,” Roz muttered quietly. Dan laughed.

Roz wasn’t certain what she was expecting, but the lobby was filthy. Food and debris were scattered everywhere, and drugged out addicts lounged on the ragged furniture. Roz was normally pretty confident in her ability to defend herself, but she couldn’t help asking, “Is this place safe?” Dan nodded towards the corner, where a goliath that would have dwarfed Bull sat, casually smacking a billy club into his hand. “I guess so.” Dan squeezed her hand and pulled her up to the counter.

“I made reservations this morning. Name of Fielding.”

The emaciated old man on the other side laughed. “Reservations,” he drawled in an affected accent. “Well, let me check.” He didn’t check anything, but simply reached down and pulled out a key. “Does room fourteen suit you, sir?”

“That’ll be fine,” Dan said in evident irritation. “But tell me, what size is the bed?” The old man gaped at him, so Dan tried again. “Is it a double, queen, or king sized bed?”

“Double.”

“Fine.” Dan pulled out his car keys and tossed them to her. “Hey, Roz. Would you mind getting my luggage while I sign us in? There are three bags in the trunk; pull out the one labelled ‘D’.”

Although Roz wondered why he would have packed three bags, Roz simply said, “sure,” and headed outside to do as requested. When she got there, sure enough, there were three suitcases packed into the trunk without an inch to spare. Each had a full sheet of paper taped to it with the letters D, K, and Q. She obediently pulled out the one with a ‘D’ even as she shook her head. “What **are** you up to, Fielding?”

She brought it into the lobby where Dan was waiting for her with her tiny overnight bag. They traded luggage and went down the hallway to their room. As they went, Roz noticed discarded syringes and used condoms at random intervals. She tapped Dan’s shoulder. “Don’t **ever** tell me how you discovered this place. Seriously. I don’t want to know.”

Dan laughed. “See, there was this girl who liked—“ She poked him in the ribs and he laughed again.

When they got to their room, Dan had to spend over a minute jiggling the lock before he finally got the door opened. When he did, he held the door open for her and ushered her in.

The room reeked of stale cigarette smoke and other smells that Roz was happier not identifying. There were burn marks on the dirty carpet and strange stains on the wall. “Dan, I spend most of my time in holding cells, and I’ve got to say—“

“This place is a revelation?” He looked oddly proud of himself. “You had no idea that places like this existed?”

“Well, that’s one way to put it…”

He threw his suitcase on the bed and opened it. “Wanna help me with this?”

Having seen a few of his toys, Roz was a bit nervous about whatever he might have in there. “Help with what?”

“Making the bed.” He looked insulted. “You didn’t think I’d ask you to actually sleep on the provided sheets, did you? I doubt they’ve been washed since the Eisenhower administration!” He pulled out a large plastic sheet that perfectly covered the mattress and then his own sheets and blankets. They were plain white and boring, but they were obviously clean, and Roz was grateful that he’d brought them. After she helped him make the bed, he pulled out two pair of slippers and handed her the smaller one. “Here. I promise you that you don’t want to walk on this carpet with bare feet.”

“Thanks.” She smiled uncertainly. “Do you mind if I use the bathroom first?”

“Go ahead.”

She went in but the light fixtures were all smashed. She left the door open in order to use the light from the room, but it prevented her from the alone time she needed in order to collect her thoughts. To be honest, Roz was starting to feel very unsure of herself. She had asked Dan to find someplace sordid, but she had never imagined herself in a hotel such as this one. And it might have been okay if they had stumbled in here a few minutes after being in each other’s arms, but it had been a while since they left the dance floor and she was starting to ask herself what in the hell she thought she was doing. This, of course, led to the larger question of what in the hell was she doing with **Dan Fielding** of all people. 

The problem was that she was no longer certain as to whether she really wanted to sleep with Dan or not. She figured she could decide while she brushed her teeth and washed the make up off her face. She turned on the faucet then called out, “Dan. The water is orange.” 

“Oh! Sorry! I was hoping we wouldn’t need this, but I brought it just in case.” He entered the bathroom, clad in nothing but blue boxer shorts and slippers, and handed her a bottle of water. She had to admit that he looked as good out of his suits as he looked in them. 

Roz was still uncertain about the entire situation, but she felt drawn to kiss him. It grounded her, and reminded her that he had never pressured her, that she had **chosen** to be here, with him. She still didn’t know **why** she wanted it, but maybe that didn’t matter. Breathlessly, she whispered, “I’ll be out in a couple of minutes.” 

He smiled seductively. “I’ll hold you to that.” 

She started to reach for a washcloth then reconsidered. Given the state of everything else in this dump, she probably didn’t want any fabric from this place anywhere near her skin. She’d use her hands to get her make up off, not that she could see what she was doing anyway. The trick was to make sure she saved enough water for them to brush their teeth and sip as needed during the night. 

Roz was so focused on her cleaning up in the dark, that she didn’t notice the slight pressure on her foot at first. After a moment, she looked down and saw a mouse sitting on her borrowed slipper. Although she had never been afraid of rodents before in her entire life, she let out an involuntary scream and shook her foot. Dan ran in just in time to see the mouse go flying. He gave her a questioning look and she shuddered. “It was on my foot. A filthy rodent, chilling out and **sitting on my foot**.” She shuddered again. 

“C’mon! You’re a New Yorker now! Don’t tell me that you’re put off by a rat or two!” 

“Rat?” Roz shuddered for a third time. “It was a mouse. Who said anything about rats?” 

“Not me!” Dan giggled and flapped his hands. “I haven’t seen any rats hiding out in the corners! Nothing in here but itty bitty little harmless mice! We’re fine!” 

“Rats? Seriously?” Roz let out a deep sigh and abruptly came to a decision. “I’m sorry, Dan, but I don’t want to be here. I know I agreed to this, but… Please. Just take me home.” 

He opened his mouth to object, but said nothing. After a moment, he closed his mouth and slumped his shoulders. He nodded silently and then went to get dressed. 

~*~*~ 

Dan hadn’t said a word to Roz since she asked to leave, mostly because he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to apologize or yell at her. He was sorry he’d taken her to such a shitty place, but he was also aggrieved that she had dared him to. He regretted not waltzing them to a suite when Roz suggested they stay in the hotel that hosted the ball, and he was furious with the universe that that place was no longer fell within his budget. (He was also somewhat grateful that Roz hadn’t seen him asking about prices, which is why it hadn’t seemed to occur to her that he couldn’t afford to stay there.) Mostly, however, he was equal parts sorry that he’d changed the nature of their relationship and enraged that it apparently wasn’t going to stay changed. 

The part of him that wanted to yell at Roz kept him from putting on the radio. He knew that it was petty, but he kind of wanted her to stew in uncomfortable silence as a payback for wrecking their plans for the night. Or perhaps **he** was the one who ruined their evening by choosing that wretched place, in which case, he also deserved the silence. Hell, he didn’t know who deserved this deafening silence, but one of them did, so he refused to break it. 

Roz, of course, could sit in silence better than anyone he’d ever met, so he fully expected to get all the way to her apartment without speaking a word. As they approached the city limits, however, her stoicism cracked. “You know, if I were Christine, I’d be saying _’Dan, we really ought to talk about this weekend.’_ ” 

Startled, Dan burst into laughter. She had sounded **just** like Christine, and somehow that unexpected impersonation broke through the dam of his emotions. He was no longer angry or remorseful or disappointed or frustrated; he was simply content to be with his friend. Through his peals of laughter, he agreed, “Yeah!” 

Roz didn’t join in his merriment. “Dan. We need to talk about this weekend.” 

His amusement died as quickly as it had been born. “Yeah,” he sighed. 

“Should I start, or do you want to?” 

Dan wanted to plead with Roz to continue sleeping with him, and he wanted to beg her to put them back in the safe, comfortable friendship they’d enjoyed before starting dancing lessons. He wasn’t sure which one he wanted more, he just knew that he wanted them both desperately. Best to see which way she was leaning before opening his mouth, because he would both love and hate whatever she had to say. 

Of course, he said none of this. Instead, he tried to play it cool. “You were the first to mention ‘a talk,’ which means you volunteered to start us out.” 

“Okay.” Dan needed to keep his eyes on traffic, so he didn’t glance over at her, but he didn’t need to. He could **hear** the scowl. “Dan, I value our friendship. It’s important to me. Whatever else happens, that needs to come first.” 

“I agree.” 

“The second most important thing to me is keeping this weekend to ourselves. I **do not** want the others knowing about this. Any of them. Especially Harry. I always try to keep him out of my business if I can, just in general principle, but if he knew about last night, nothing less than homicide would shut him up.” Just as Dan could hear (or imagined he heard) a scowl earlier, he now heard Roz smile. “Call me crazy, but I’m guessing that there are limited opportunities at career advancement for bailiffs who murder their judges.” 

If the others knew that he and Roz were sleeping together, the comments wouldn’t end with Harry. Christine, Mac, and Bull would all have something to say, and Dan suspected that he wouldn’t enjoy hearing any of it. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure how he felt about being a dirty little secret for a woman who wasn’t married, or highly connected in society, or an up and coming professional. Actually, now that he thought about it, Dan was a dirty secret more often that not, but that didn’t mean that he liked being **Roz** ’s secret. Still, in the overall picture, she was probably correct. So after a moment’s hesitation, he said, “I’m still with you.” 

“So, I guess the big question is where do we go from here. What happens on Monday?” 

Dan would have put it a lot more bluntly. _Are we still banging are not? And whose apartment am I sleeping in tonight?_ But he knew what she was getting at. He was passionately both for and against going back to their previous relationship, so he offered an observation rather than an opinion. “You gotta admit, Roz: we are **smoking** hot together. If we continue, it’s only a matter of time until we break a bed. Or three. We would need to start saving for that.” 

“Yeah, I guess the sex is okay.” 

“High praise, coming from you,” Dan said wryly. 

“What can I say? I’m naturally effusive.” Dan hummed noncommittally. “But I’m also allergic to being cheated upon, as in, it causes me to react violently. **Very** violently. Psychopathically, even. Also, it doesn’t matter how hot we are together because our basic problem is you.” 

“Ouch.” 

“Not you personally, but the fact is that you’re hardly a poster boy for fidelity. That doesn’t work for me, and the chances are good that I’d put you in traction sooner or later if you cheated on me. Which you probably will if we don’t end this now.” 

He wanted to protest, but all he could say was, “You’re right. I’ve never been successful at being faithful to a woman, and if that’s what you want, you deserve to have it.” 

“More than that, our friendship would end the moment you betrayed me. So if you mean it when you say our friendship is the most important thing—“ 

“I do. It is.” 

“Then we need to end this. Now.” Dan made another cagey sound because he couldn’t bear to vocalize his agreement. “So, we’re agreed. From here on out, we’re just friends again, with the emphasis on _just_.” 

Dan didn’t agree at all, but she wasn’t wrong. His lawyerly mind searched for a flaw in her logic, but there were none to be found. Or maybe, there might be one. “If we’re awkward on Monday, the others will want to know why. If we stop cold turkey, there will be questions neither of us want to answer.” 

“What are you suggesting? One for the road?” 

_Yes!_ “No!” Dan said in a tone of affected offense. “But it might help if we could hang out naturally, with no sex,” and oh, but did it kill him to say **that** , “before going back to work.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t know if Christine mentioned it to you, but her dad is coming in from Buffalo for a visit next week. What she doesn’t know is that Jack always adds a couple of days to his trips to stay with me.” 

“Why?” 

This time he didn’t need to pretend to be offended. “Because I’m a fun guy and Jack enjoys my company!” 

“No, I meant why is it a secret from Christine?” 

Because Dan’s hobby was annoying Christine and it would take away one of his great triumphs if she were to know that his relationship with her father had nothing to do with her. Since he didn’t want to admit that, however, he gave Roz the reason that Jack always used. “She disapproves of our friendship. She thinks I’m a bad influence on him.” 

“Imagine that…” 

“ **Anyway** ,” he interrupted with some impatience, “the point is that he’s arriving at my place tomorrow afternoon. We’re going to eat pizza, drink beer, and watch a Mike Tiger fight on pay per view.” 

“It’s Mike **Tyson** ,” she said disdainfully. Then with more excitement, “You mean the fight with Buster Douglas?” 

“Probably.” 

“That should be an interesting match. I mean, Tyson will win of course, but it should be a good preview of how ready he is to face Evander Hollyfield.” 

“So come over and watch it with us.” He had no idea why he wanted her to come over to his apartment so badly, but for some reason, it was important to him. He and Jack hadn’t altogether decided what they’d be doing, but this fight had been mentioned as a possibility, and he couldn’t think of a stronger enticement for Roz to come. “It will give us a chance to act casual with somebody who doesn’t know us well enough to notice if we’re off, and besides that, it should be fun.” 

“And it’ll give you another chance to try and get into my pants.” 

“With Jack there? Come on!” Dan pulled up in front of Roz’s apartment and turned to look at her. She looked suspicious, but also tempted. “Give me a **little** credit!” 

“Alright.” 

Dan smiled wide enough for his cheeks to hurt. “So you’ll come? Fantastic! Try to get there between four and five.” 

“But Christine’s dad had better be there, Fielding. If not, I’m outta there.” 

“Don’t worry; he’ll be there and the three of us will have fun.” 

“You had better be right about that,” she said menacingly. She put her hand on the door handle, then hesitated. “And Dan?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Thanks for tonight. I had a great time.” 

“Up until the mouse?” 

“Yeah, up until then.” She smiled. “Actually, no. I’ve enjoyed all of the last 24 hours. Thank you for inviting me.” 

He wanted to ask why she was ending any possibility of them continuing if she enjoyed it so much, but he didn’t. Instead, he smiled back at her. “My pleasure, Roz.” He’d never meant those words more. 

His heart broke a little as she jumped out of his car and ran into her apartment building. It broke even more when he reflected that it was probably for the best. 

~*~*~ 

Everything about her day was typical for a Sunday, but Roz spent the entire day feeling off kilter. She woke up alone, dressed up in her Sunday best (complete with an outrageously big hat), sang in the choir, AMEN-ed at the sermon, and went out to lunch with friends. She went home, changed into sweat clothes, and beat the hell out of a boxing bag at the gym that was within walking distance of her apartment. She showered and did her grocery shopping for the week. It was pretty much identical to every other Sunday she’d had since moving to New York, and yet, it all felt like it was happening to a stranger. 

A fundamental part of Roz’s self-identity was that she was sensible. She was far too sensible to potentially ruin a solid friendship by sleeping with said friend. She wasn’t the type to sleep with a co-worker. She certainly wasn’t dim enough to have sex with a womanizer such as Dan. With her abysmal record with men, she would never turn away a good looking man who clearly wanted to keep seeing her, especially if he was a lawyer or some other high-earning professional. And yet, over the course of one weekend, she had done all those things. 

And the chances were good that she wasn’t done doing dumb things, because she was **seriously** considering going to Dan’s apartment that afternoon. She could tell herself that she just wanted to see the fight, but she knew of several bars that were likely to spring for the pay per view costs to show it. She could use Dan’s excuse, that it would be good for them to get all awkwardness out of the way today, except she didn’t actually believe that it would be helpful. The argument that pizza had fewer calories when somebody else paid for it had some merit, but that wasn’t really why she was thinking of going. The inescapable truth was that she really wanted to go. She wanted to spend more time with Dan away from work, and that had to be the stupidest damn thing she had ever thought about doing. 

If she was the person she’d always believed herself to be, of **course** she wouldn’t go, but somehow, Roz knew that she would. 

And she did. 

Right on the stroke of four, she rang up to Dan’s apartment. He buzzed her in without asking who she was, and she went up. When Roz got to his floor, Christine’s father was out in the hallway, holding the door open for her. 

“Hi there! Dan told me that you might be coming over. I wasn’t so sure about watching a fight with a girl, but Dan assures me that you know when to be quiet.” 

Roz scowled. “I’ll do my best.” 

“Huh.” Jack looked unconvinced. “Just make sure you don’t gossip or do any girly-talk during the fight. And no doing your nails or fluffing your hair or anything like that.” 

“I think I can restrain myself.” 

“See that you do.” 

Dan called out happily from the kitchen. “Roz! You came! You remember Jack, right?” 

“Yep. He was just running through the rules.” 

“Jack! I told you, Roz knows more about boxing than the two of us put together. She probably knows more than a full bar of guys put together. She’ll be explaining stuff to us.” 

“Yeah, you said that, but she still looks like a girl to me.” 

“Does she?” Dan gave her a look that was frankly lecherous. It affected her more than it should have. “I hadn’t noticed.” 

Somehow, that typical Dan remark was the perfect thing to say, because it broke the tension. Roz laughed and was suddenly glad she’d come. 

~*~*~ 

It was a **great** fight, one of the better ones Roz had ever seen. Neither of the men knew that much about boxing (though neither would admit it!), but they listened politely as Roz explained some of the finer points. Honestly, she didn’t know how much they appreciated the artistry of the fight itself, but she loved it enough for all three of them. 

Both Dan and Jack claimed that Tyson was going to win in a knock out within the first three rounds because that was what “the smart money in Vegas” was saying. Before that evening, Roz would have said the same, but before the fight started she saw a look in Douglas’s eyes that changed her mind. At Dan’s suggestion, they each threw ten bucks into a pool, and after the money was collected, they settled down to watch Douglas jab away at Tyson like a woodpecker. When Tyson’s eye swelled up so badly that he could barely see in the fifth round, Dan tried to change his bet, and by the end of the ninth, Dan asked about borrowing ten dollars from her “because I know you have it. Or you will have it.” In the end, they went ten rounds and Douglas won with a knockout. Roz used her twenty bucks to reimburse Dan for the pizza. 

But it wasn’t only the fight that made it such a great night, though Roz did love that. Dan made nachos and a delicious spinach dip which she enjoyed far more than the fancy appetizers from the night before, and she was always a huge fan of chicken wings and pizza. The conversation was raucous and hilarious, and Jack turned out to be just as great of a guy as Dan said he was. But mostly, it was something intangible in the atmosphere that made the evening truly special. Roz sat between the two men, and Dan kept his arm across her shoulders for most of the fight. His touch was both electric and oddly comforting, and Roz found herself never wanting to leave. 

Eventually, however, all the pizza was eaten and all the beer drunk, and there was nothing left to watch on television. When Jack yawned, Roz took that as her cue. “Thanks for having me over, Dan. I enjoyed this.” 

Dan smiled warmly. “Thanks for coming.” 

“And Jack, it was nice getting to know you better. I hope to see you again sometime this week.” 

“You can count on it! I love going to court and watching my little girl work.” 

“Christine is good at her job,” Roz agreed. Jack beamed at her for saying that and kissed her on the cheek. Dan leaned against the wall, so he wouldn’t be called upon to touch her in any way. Even though it was what she’d said she wanted, Roz couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. “Well, good night.” 

Both men chorused “good night” at her and she started down the stairs towards the lobby. She was almost there when she heard a “thud” from a couple of floors above her. It was repeated soon after and then again. Somehow, she knew it was Dan, so she paused at the bottom of the stairs. 

After two more thuds, Dan appeared on the last landing. He jumped over all the stairs at once, landing beside her like a cat. Out of breath, he panted, “Meet me in the broom closet at the start of the dinner break tomorrow night.” 

“What?!?” 

Dan put both hands on either side of her face and leaned down to kiss her passionately. By the time he pulled away, Roz’s head was spinning and her heart was thumping. Voice low and deep, he said again, “Meet me in the broom closet tomorrow. At the start of the dinner break.” 

Dazed, she whispered, “Okay.” 

He nodded at her solemnly and then bounded back up the stairs, presumably before Roz could return to her senses and change her mind. 

Roz stumbled towards the outside door. There was a beveled mirror panel on the door that showed a vague reflection of herself. She stared at the idiot looking back at her and asked, “What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?” The reflection had no more answers than she did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have an aunt who worked in a charge-by-the-hour motel as a maid. Some of the descriptions are taken from her.
> 
> The thing with the mouse actually happened to me. In this chapter and this chapter ONLY, Roz is a Mary Sue. *grin*
> 
> The Tyson/Douglas fight did actually happen on February 11, 1990. My description of the fight comes from Wikipedia, so it's probably accurate. I doubt that it actually occurred on a Sunday, but what the hey. I planned from the beginning to arrange my entire timeline around a fight that occurred somewhere between January and March of 1990, and I needed that fight to happen on a Sunday night. I was lucky enough to get one of the most famous fights of the decade within that window, so I'm running with it. :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monday always comes in the end

When Roz got home the night before, there had been a message on her machine from Bull. He wanted to remind her that she had promised to go out drinking with the gang after work and to suggest that she should take the subway in to the courthouse so she wouldn’t have to drive home afterwards. Taking a chance that Dan would have gotten the same message and that he was currently too broke to afford a taxi, Roz left early to try and catch him outside the train station closest to his apartment. She got there half an hour before he was likely to leave and waited for close to an hour in the cold before she finally caught sight of him.

She was close enough to grab his arm before calling out, “Dan!”

He let out a loud yell. A police officer was there instantly. “Are you okay, sir? Is this woman harassing you?”

He smiled sheepishly. “I’m fine. My friend here startled me; that’s all. Sorry to have bothered you.” The cop gave Roz a suspicious look, so Dan made a big production of putting an arm across her shoulders and drawing her close, so that the man could see that he was in no danger. Under his breath he hissed, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you outside of work.”

Without releasing his hold on her shoulders, he started walking them down the stairs to the station. “You could have come up to my apartment rather than lurking and scaring the hell out of me,” he grumbled.

“Yeah, ‘cause **that’s** neutral territory…”

“Neutral territory? Ah!” Dan’s face twisted into an ugly expression. “Let me guess what you want to talk about. You’ve changed your mind. Again.”

“No, but you keep talking to me in that snotty tone of voice and I will.”

His defensive, borderline aggressive posture suddenly crumpled. “I’m sorry. Can we try this again.” He stopped and pulled her towards the wall. He took both of her hands in his and gave her an obviously false smile. It didn’t irritate Roz because she could see that he was trying. “Hello, Roz. It’s a surprise to see you here. Would you care to tell me why you want to talk to me?”

“A couple of things. First of all, if we’re doing this,” Dan’s face took on a guarded expression, so she hastened to add, “and I **want** to do this, but if we are, I need two guarantees from you.”

He released one of her hands but held on to the other and started walking towards the platform again. “Okay. Shoot.”

“One: we keep this between us.”

“Does that include Phil? Because it’s hard to keep things from him.”

Roz sighed. “I’d prefer that **nobody** but us knew, but I’m mostly concerned about our coworkers. So, I guess it is what it is.” Dan made a noise that sounded like agreement, so she continued. “Second: if you’re planning to sleep with someone else, I want you break up with me first. And if it just kind of happens, you tell me as soon as you can. As long as you don’t lie to me or string me along, we should be okay no matter how things end up.”

He stopped and stared at her in wonder. “You mean that?”

She shrugged. “We would be eventually. Look, sometimes things work out, but most of the time they don’t. I get that. As long as I’m not left feeling like a fool, I can even accept it. But you run another girl at the same time you’re seeing me, we’re gonna have a problem.”

“That’s fair. More than fair. As much as I would like to promise you that I’ll be faithful, my current record is sixteen days and…” Dan trailed out then took a deep breath and continued. “I do **want** to be faithful because I do want to keep seeing you, and I’m going to try and do my best, so I guess we’ll see what happens there. But I can and I will promise to be truthful with you. I don’t do a whole lot of that either as a general rule, but I do have **some** experience with honesty and I can definitely do that for you.”

“That’s all I’m asking for, Dan.” Having reached the platform, Roz turned and loosely draped her arms around his neck. “As for the second thing I wanted to discuss with you: **why** are we meeting in a filthy broom closet when you have an office of your own, complete with lock? I don’t get it.”

“I like filthy.” Dan waggled his eyebrows. “But seriously, we can’t meet in my office. I work in my office.” 

“So. Janitors work in the broom closet.” Dan seemed puzzled by that statement, clearly considering it a non sequitur. “But are you telling me that you’ve never…”

“Done the old no pants dance? Not in my office. Not there.” He looked faintly scandalized at the suggestion, an expression that Roz would never have believed he could pull off. “That’s for working!”

For a guy who prided himself on being willing and able to do it any time, anywhere, with anybody, Roz was amused at how shocked he was at the idea of having sex in his work space. Among his many quirks, this was one of the more endearing ones, so she let it go.

“Okay, so getting it on while on the table in your office is off the table.” He grinned, clearly pleased with that phrase. “But still, what’s with the broom closet? I happen to know for a fact that you’re claustrophobic. Your thing with the broom closet has never made any sense to me.”

“The broom closet—“ The train came at that point and it suddenly became too loud to hold a conversation. They got on the train but there weren’t two seats next to each other, so they stood close to the door where there was a small amount of privacy. Dan leaned over, placing his mouth close to her ear and began again. “If you want slow and careful lovemaking, the broom closet isn’t where you want to be. It’s for fast and hard fucking, which makes it perfect for breaks. We’ll be finished and sitting down to dinner in the cafeteria long before the walls start closing in on me.”

Roz made a wry face. “Well, that sounds fun…”

“It is, actually.” Dan looked almost dreamy. “All through the first part of court, you watch a long, depressing line of sad sacks, but if you have the broom closet to look forward to, they’ll never get to you. You look at those losers and think to yourself, ‘You’re going to jail, but I’m going to get lucky soon.’ By the time the dinner break comes, you’ve been thinking about sex for hours and you’re primed. I guarantee that your orgasm will come quickly and will hit you like a rocket.”

“Pretty sure of yourself, huh?”

He grinned smugly, but didn’t take the bait. Instead, he continued as if Roz hadn’t interrupted. “And then during the second half of the session, you can think about those fireworks rather than the dregs of New York. More than that, you’ll do your career some good while you’re at it. Whenever Harry gets ridiculous or sanctimonious or self-pitying, all you have to do is let your mind wander over to the dinner break and his self-indulgent fuckery passes right over you, like a summer breeze. You’ll smile, and Harry will think it’s about one of his jokes, and everybody’s happy.”

“Huh.” Roz stared at him. “I had no idea there was a whole philosophy behind your weird broom closet thing. I just figured that you were too cheap to spring for hotel rooms.”

He giggled. “Well, there’s that too.”

~*~*~

Roz hated to admit it, but Dan was right. Knowing that she was planning on having cheap sex over the dinner break made the night fly by. Her friends who were lawyers might call it _in flagrante pre-meditate_. (Or maybe not. The only Latin she knew was from hanging out in court rooms.) Whatever it was, she kind of liked it.

What she was even more reluctant to admit however was how hot Dan’s voice was making her. He had always changed pitch like a concert pianist, making his voice go squeaky or baritone in order to highlight whatever emotion he was feeling at the moment, or to hammer home a legal point that might win him a case. She’d never thought twice about this habit, figuring it was simply part of what made Dan Dan. Tonight, however, she couldn’t ignore it. Whenever he made his voice go to its lowest registers, which he did periodically, she felt herself getting wet. 

Dan could never know how his voice affected her. He’d be relentless.

The great thing about being a bailiff was that the fundamental requirement for the job was standing. Just standing. She liked to take pride in her work, so she did quite a bit more, but at the end of the day every bailiff got a paycheck if they stood all day; paying attention or volunteering to move prisoners or run reports all over the building were all optional. For one of the first times ever, Roz just stood and let her mind drift at work. No one noticed other than Bull, and he could be counted on to cover for the extra duties she customarily took on. Though from the smirks he shot her every once in a while, she suspected that Dan knew that her mind wasn’t on her work. And if the bastard knew that, he also knew **why** she was distracted. Damn him.

In her daze, Roz found that time moved both rapidly and glacially. After a single heartbeat that seemed to last an eternity, Mac announced the last case scheduled before the dinner break.

A young man wearing sandals (in February!) was the accused. Dan was standing as far away from the him as he could, jostling the plaintiff several times as each tried to maneuver the other into moving towards the middle. Christine stood close to her client, but she wore a pained expression, as did Harry. Mac had quickly retreated to his desk the moment the prisoner was brought before the bench.

“Your Honor,” Dan said. “The accused was expelled from The Borough of Manhattan Community College for, erm, personal hygiene issues and—“

“They had no right to do that!” the young man exclaimed angrily. “Nowhere in the student handbook does it say that you have to shower every day before coming to class!”

The victim, a middle-aged man wearing a tweed jacket and an impressive black eye, snorted. “Every day! I would have settled for you taking a sponge bath once a semester!” 

The prisoner looked like he was going to attack the victim again, but Bull quickly came between the two. From the look on his face, he clearly wished that he had remained over by Roz.

Dan continued. “Mr. Erasmus is correct that bathing requirements are not stipulated by the college, but rather than attempting to litigate the matter with campus administrators, he chose to attack the professor who was listed in the expulsion document as complaining most persistently about the, um, miasma that surrounds Mr. Erasmus. After striking Dr. Rogin in the eye, he took off one of his shoes and began to beat the victim with it. Dr. Rogin passed out from the stench and was only revived through the repeated application of smelling salts.”

“Well, this attack sounds violent, which makes it a very serious charge.” Harry wiped at his eyes and then turned towards Christine. “How does your client plead, Ms. Sullivan?”

“Guilty, your Honor, but we ask for leniency due to the provocation he received from his instructor.”

“I’m afraid that the Court can not agree, Counselor. If Mr. Erasmus felt that his reputation was unfairly maligned—though I’m not sure ‘unfair’ is the accurate term in this case—then he should have brought it up in a civil case. He chose instead to engage in a misdemeanor assault that could have been far more serious than it was. As you know, such an assault comes with a penalty of up to six months in jail and a fine of a thousand bucks.”

Dan and Christine both spoke at once. Dan looked smug as he said, “Thank you, your Honor,” while Christine yelled “Your Honor!” in evident outrage.

Harry ignored them both. “ **However** , the Court notes that this is a first offense for Mr. Erasmus, so it sentences him to thirty days in jail and a fine of $200.” He hit his gavel upon the desk. “Bull, please take the prisoner to holding.” Bull shot Harry a look of betrayed horror, but did as he was asked without comment. “And I now declare a fifty minute recess for lunch. Be back here by nine o’clock, people.” Harry gaveled again before turning to his clerk. “And Mac, see if you can get a janitor up here with some Lysol or something so we can air the place out before starting up again.”

“Yes, sir.”

And that was it. It was now the moment of decision: did she want to pursue this ridiculous thing with Dan or not? She had slept with him once, but they had already proven they could move past that and remain friends. She had agreed to sleep with him again and backed out, but they had moved past that as well. Somehow, Roz knew that she wouldn’t get another chance with Dan if she stood him up tonight; they would still be pals, but he would give up on being anything more than that.

But wasn’t that what she wanted? Dan was a slimeball, as he would be the first to admit. It was only a matter of time until he cheated on her, so why was she setting herself up for that?

Because Dan was fun and she genuinely enjoyed his company. Because he was clearly knowledgeable about a wide variety of kinks, and none of the men she’d ever been involved with were interested in anything other than the Missionary position. (James had allowed her to bring her handcuffs into bed, but that was the most daring any of her partners had ever gotten. There was a reason she’d fallen harder for him than any other man since her ex-husband.). Because she was too shy to talk about her fantasies, and a lover with the experience to guess them for her was something she’d been dreaming about for years.

Because Dan was exciting, and humdrum men just weren’t as appealing to her now as they were before she was diagnosed with diabetes. Dan wasn’t safe, and that more than anything else was the deciding factor. 

She felt Dan’s eyes on her, so she turned and gave him a slight, imperceptible nod as she walked past him towards the hallway. 

As she walked towards the fabled broom closet, it occurred to her that there was no way that a quickie like this was going to be as great as Dan had made it out to be. She didn’t tend to orgasm all that quickly; she was almost certain to leave the closet horny and unsatisfied. Perhaps that was a **good** thing; exactly what she needed to finally cure her of the madness that had her mentally putting the words _Dan, Fielding,_ and _boyfriend_ in the same sentence.

~*~*~

Roz was almost correct. Sex in the broom closet wasn’t as great as Dan had claimed it would be; it was **considerably** more fantastic than he had prepared her for.

~*~*~

Dan waited a couple of minutes until Roz’s legs were steady enough to hold her without his support. When they were, he kissed her gently then boldly strode out of the closet. Everyone expected him to be there over a dinner break, so he didn’t care if anyone saw him emerging or not. It was Roz who wanted to remain anonymous.

As it happened, the hallway was as deserted as it ever got. He opened the door and said, “Now’s a good time to come out.”

“I can’t. I’m still looking for my panties. You didn’t throw them over your shoulder or anything like that, did you?”

Dan smirked. “Nope. I put them in my pocket. You’re not going to find them, so you might as well come out now while the coast is clear.”

She came out with a ferocious scowl on her face. There was no matching fire in her eyes, however; she still looked a bit dazed. Dan was more than a bit smug that he had put that look into her eyes. “Give them back,” she hissed.

“Not on your life,” he responded quietly. “I’m thinking about putting them in a frame. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to give me that old picture of you, the one where you look like a member of The Supremes? I’m thinking that I could make a nice collage with—“

She grabbed hold of his shirt. “ **I’m** thinking that you’d best be giving them back right the hell **now** unless you want to spend the next six weeks in traction!”

Dan looked both ways to make sure he didn’t see any of their coworkers, then leaned down to bring his mouth close to Roz’s ear. He wasn’t concerned about anyone else hearing; he simply wanted the intimacy of whispering directly to her, especially if they were unobserved. “Trust me, Roz. You’ll love it. The rest of the night, you’ll feel a slight breeze from below, or the scratch of your skirt on your unprotected ass, and you’ll relive the last fifteen minutes. It’ll extend the experience for the next four hours. You’ll wind up being glad that I took them, which is good, because I really don’t want to give them back.” He straightened up so that he could see her face; she looked uncertain so he pressed a little bit harder. Still speaking too low to be overheard, he said, “Just let me hold on to them until after work. I have an idea of how to make it worth your while; if you don’t like it, I’ll give them back to you. If you do, I get to keep them.”

She was silent for a moment, as if she was having some kind of internal debate. Finally she relented. “All right, I’ll try going commando. I’ve never done it before and I doubt I’ll like it, but I’ll try it. But if I still want my underwear back by the end of the night, then you promise not to pull this shit again.” He nodded fervently and she shot him a suspicious look. After a moment, she strode away towards the cafeteria and he jogged to catch up with her.

They entered the cafeteria at roughly the same time. All of their friends were already at their usual table. Harry called over expansively, “Join us! What kept you guys anyway?”

Dan spoke up quickly, before Roz could blow it. She was hard to read, but she also wasn’t as used to lying as he was, so he wanted to head her off. “I needed to go to the ATM to get money for tonight, and I didn’t want to get mugged afterwards. I convinced Roz to go with me to keep me safe.” He smiled broadly. “I’m now flush enough to go out with you guys tonight. I’m really looking forward to it!”

Everyone around the table looked confused, but it was Christine who said it. “You are? You usually try to slither out of group things if they’re after work.” She stared at him intently. “What are you up to?”

He put on his most offended tone. “Who said I’m up to anything? Is there anything wrong with wanting to spend some time with my friends, nay, **family** outside of work?”

Harry put on a conciliatory tone. “There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that you usually have a date lined up after work. We’re surprised, that’s all.”

Dan made a big show of looking mollified. “Well, as it happens, I **do** have a date.” He resisted an overwhelming desire to glance at Roz when he said this. “At least, I think I do. I hope I do. But it’s not until later, so I should have plenty of time for a drink or two.”

Mac looked confused. “When do you sleep, Dan?”

“I don’t. It interferes with my sex life.” He smiled broadly and started in on a obscene story about an insomniac he’d once dated. He did look towards Roz a couple of times during this recital and each time he saw a thoughtful look on her face. Good. He had felt off-balance for the better part of a week, ever since she’d started giving him dance lessons; it was his turn to keep her guessing.

~*~*~

_Be careful what you wish for, Roz, my girl._ Papa’s voice sounded clear in her head, as it always did after she’d just ignored some piece of advice he’d given her when she was a kid. She usually regretted her recent actions whenever the Ghost of Papa Past paid her a visit, but she wasn’t sure if she did in this case or not. 

She’d wanted a more adventurous sex life, and now look at her: out in the open, at work, not wearing any underwear. This wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind! And more than that, she **knew** that Dan had something planned for after work, something that he wasn’t going to discuss with her until it was too late for her to object.

And yet… he was correct too. Knowing that Dan had her panties, hidden somewhere on his person, was oddly arousing. She wasn’t certain that she liked it, exactly, but she sure as hell didn’t hate it as much as she would have guessed. 

Dan’s low, sensuous whisper replaced Papa’s voice in her head. _The rest of the night, you’ll feel a slight breeze from below, or the scratch of your skirt on your unprotected ass_ He had that right too. She couldn’t seem to escape physical sensations that had her thinking about sex with Dan; she wasn’t sure that she **wanted** to escape those sensations.

She’d been so certain that the broom closet would be a bust and she’d have the justification she needed to break things off with him. She’d never considered the possibility that it would be addictive, that she’d be craving Dan’s touch again from the moment she walked out of that filthy tiny room. Not good planning on her part.

The second half of the session passed much as the first, with only a portion of her mind on the proceedings. She did do a bit better, pulled more of her own weight than she had before dinner, but she still left several duties to Bull that she would normally have done herself. 

She needed to shake herself out of this.

Even dragging hours come to an end eventually. After freaking forever, Harry finally announced, “Okay, that’s a wrap people!” and gaveled the end of the session.

She and Bull walked towards Harry’s desk, where Mac, Dan, and Christine were already standing. “So, what do you say, guys?” Bull asked cheerily. “Muldoon’s, Emilio’s, or some place else?”

“Muldoon’s sounds good to me,” Christine said. “They have better non-alcoholic options.” She rubbed her belly, as if to highlight the fact that she wasn’t drinking for the baby’s sake instead of prudishness.

Dan agreed. “I also vote for Muldoon’s. They have larger booths.”

Because Harry always thought he should have the final say, he piped up, “Okay, Muldoon’s it is! Let me just run some stuff to my office and meet you downstairs in the lobby in five minutes.”

Dan and Christine also had to go to their offices, and Mac had some filing to do before he could leave, so she and Bull walked down together. Once they were alone, he asked, “Are you okay, Roz? You seemed kind of off tonight.”

“I’m sorry, Bull. I have a lot on my mind, but I’m trying to work it out. I won’t let it happen again.”

“No, it’s fine. I was just worried, that’s all. Is there anything I can do?”

Roz was tempted to ask, _Would you mind smacking me upside the head?_ , but a concussion would interfere with whatever Dan had planned for tonight, and she really wanted to know what that was. So instead, she smiled brightly at him. “No, but thank you. You’re a good friend to offer, but this is something I need to work out for myself.”

Bull, being Bull, didn’t argue with her but simply said, “Okey dokey.” She had never loved him more.

Dan, Mac, and Harry weren’t too far behind her and Bull, but they had to wait over five minutes for Christine. “Sorry, I had to go to the bathroom. I sure wish this kid would find something else to do besides kicking my bladder!”

“Have you tried swallowing a ball?” Bull asked.

This led to Harry telling a rather gruesome story about a freak show performer who swallowed all kinds of things. While their boss was grossing out the others, Roz dropped back to talk to Dan. “Why did you mention booth sizes when we were discussing which bar to go to? You know we always get a large table.” Dan smiled in a way that reminded Roz that she was playing with fire. 

Once they got to Muldoon’s, Dan maneuvered his way to the front of the group. He picked out a booth for them and the others dutifully followed. He gestured for Roz to get in first on the right side of the table then slid in next to her, with Harry on his other side. First Bull then Mac slid into the booth on the other side of the table; Christine pulled a chair over to sit at the end, in order that she might be able to get to the bathroom easier. Also, Roz figured that it could go either way whether Christine was too large to fit under the table anyway.

Because of Christine’s pregnancy and Roz’s diabetes, both women ordered non-alcoholic drinks. Harry and Dan asked for scotches, while Bull and Mac ordered beers. Once they all got their drinks, Dan lifted his up for a toast.

“What’s the occasion?” Harry asked.

“None,” Dan said with a grin. “I’m just happy.”

Harry shrugged. “Good enough for me.” He clinked Dan’s glass, which led the others to follow suit. “Cheers!”

The toast was loud enough to cover Roz’s startled squeak when Dan slid his hand up her skirt. She suspected that he had planned it that way.

~*~*~

Dan had been with a number of women who got off on exhibitionism. That wasn’t one of his particular kinks, but he was quite fond of **almost** getting caught with his pants down. Pushing visibility to the edge without ever quite going over? He liked that very much. And he figured a woman like Roz, able to conceal every emotion behind a mask of stoicism, offered new boundaries to explore in this arena.

Once the drinks came, Dan surreptitiously placed his right hand on Roz’s knee. Meeting no objection, he gradually crept up further until he had his hand up her skirt. Since he happened to know that she wasn’t wearing panties, there was nothing stopping him from going all the way up to her pussy. (Though, to be fair, underwear wouldn’t have created much of an impediment either. The only thing that would have stopped him was a spoken or nonverbal “no.”)

He kept up a steady banter, though he lost all recollection of whatever he said about five seconds after saying it. Still, the others laughed at his witticisms, and no one suspected a thing, so he was clearly doing okay.

After a couple of minutes of massaging her, Dan began a slow, leisurely finger fuck. He tried to avoid her clit as much as possible, not wanting to make it **too** difficult for her to maintain a blank expression. Roz brought her hand over to his crotch, presumably to return the favor, but he trapped it between his thighs. If she had been free to ask, he would have told her that this was something he wanted to do just for her—which was not untrue—but mostly, he knew that his face gave away far, far too much of whatever he happened to be feeling at the moment. He lacked Roz’s ability to mask her emotions, which meant that he could never get away being on the receiving end of a hand job in public. If he wasn’t having so goddamn much fun doing this for Roz, he might have considered it unfair that he would never get to be on the other end of this little game.

She took the stimulation for far longer than he would have been able to, but after ten minutes or so, he noticed that she was clenching the table and that her knuckles were starting to turn a bit white. He wasn’t surprised when she gulped down the rest of her drink and announced that she had to go home.

“Aw,” whined Bull. “We just got here!”

“Sorry, Bull. I have an appointment in the morning, and I’ll never make it if I don’t get some sleep tonight.”

“Say, Roz,” Dan drawled with a calculated casualness. “I’m meeting somebody who lives pretty near your place. Do you mind if I leave with you, and share your cab?”

She didn’t even glance at him. “You pay half.”

“Of course!”

“Well, alright, come on then.”

It all went exactly as Dan had hoped that it would, almost as if the two of them rehearsed it. Until it didn’t. “I hate to be another party pooper,” Christine chimed in, “but this kid really wears me out. Do you mind if I go in for a third of your guys’ cab? I’m not too far out of the way.”

Dan would have snarled something nasty at Christine, but luckily, Roz spoke up first. “The more the merrier. Let’s go.”

Dan slammed down the last of his scotch and dropped some cash on the table. Unlike his usual habit, it not only covered the tip for his drink, but a little extra as well. He needed to leave before Mac or Harry counted up the amount and decided that he was a pod person.

The three of them went out into the cold, February night. Despite the temperature, it was clear and the stars were as close to visible as they ever got in the city. If it had been warmer, he might have suggested that he and Roz go for a walk and simply enjoy the night together. (Though considering that her anxiousness to go home was almost certainly due to the fact that she was ready for him to finish what he’d started, Roz probably wouldn’t have agreed to that in any case.)

Luck was with them for a change and it didn’t take long to get a cab. Dan suggested that Christine sit in the front—solely in order to make it easier for the pregnant woman to exit the car of course!—but the cabbie insisted that she sit in back. There was a tense and uncomfortable silence that Christine clearly didn’t understand, and she tried to break it with inane chatter. Dan was very fond of his fellow attorney, but if he had been sitting in the middle instead of Roz, he would have gladly strangled the pregnant woman.

It couldn’t have been much more than five minutes before the cab pulled in front of Christine’s building, but Dan would have sworn that it was hours. Still, he rallied to wish her a good night. As they watched her waddle into her building, staying to make sure she got inside safely, Roz gave directions to their driver.

Once they could no longer see Christine, the cabbie started driving again. Roz murmured, “I love Christine, I really do, but—“

“But you thought she would never leave? Me too.”

They looked at each other for a second and then Roz **lunged** for him. Her hands and mouth were everywhere at once; Dan, of course, was gallant enough to return the favor. He wanted her as much as he’d ever wanted any woman, but somehow, he sensed that she craved him even more. This didn’t happen to him too often, at least not with women that he actually **liked** , and the knowledge was more intoxicating than his scotch had been. Lightheaded, he whispered into the nape of her neck, “Christine wouldn’t have shared a cab with us if she knew that we were planning on doing a horizontal mambo. Still think secrecy is a good idea?”

“No, but you do.” Leaving his hands in place, Dan pulled back to look at her; Roz was giving him a slightly sour look. “You enjoyed that little stunt you pulled back in the bar.”

Dan started to laugh, but it soon turned into uncontrollable giggles. “I did,” he admitted. “I really, really did.”

She maintained her glare for a moment or two and then started laughing with him. 

The experience was surreal, almost disorienting. Here he was, hand on the boob of a woman he hoped to sleep with, while simultaneously enjoying the company of someone he cared deeply about. This was something that never happened to him; it was always _or_ , never _and_. Sex _or_ companionship, sex _or_ friendship, sex or fun, sex _or_ an emotional connection. And let’s face it; he almost always chose sex. But apparently, he didn’t have to choose with Roz. He could have both, and it was dizzying.

Dan cupped Roz’s face with his hand, a gentle gesture at odds with the frenzied groping from the minute before. And yet (another _and_ ), it felt right. “I enjoy pretty much everything about being with you, Roz.”

“Pass me a cracker, Fielding. I need something to go with that cheese you’re dishing out.”

He giggled again. “I know! I can’t believe that just came out of my mouth. Oddly enough, however, it happens to be true.”

She didn’t respond to that, or at least not verbally. She leaned forward and kissed him, a lingering, passionate kiss that promised a long night ahead of them both. 

Since he was hoping for longer than a single night, he broke the kiss by going after a spot that he suspected might be ticklish. The laughter, giggles, and caresses continued until the taxi reached Roz’s building, and an awful lot longer than that.

THE END


End file.
